Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1122 - 4.2.2.21 Acknowledging Queued Segments: RFC-793 Section 3.9

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### 4.2.2.21 Acknowledging Queued Segments: RFC-793 Section 3.9

A TCP MAY send an ACK segment acknowledging RCV.NXT when a valid segment arrives that is in the window but not at the left window edge.

DISCUSSION:

  RFC-793 (see page 74) was ambiguous about whether or not an ACK segment should be sent when an out-of-order segment was received, i.e., when SEG.SEQ was unequal to RCV.NXT.

  One reason for ACKing out-of-order segments might be to support an experimental algorithm known as "fast retransmit". With this algorithm, the sender uses the "redundant" ACK's to deduce that a segment has been lost before the retransmission timer has expired. It counts the number of times an ACK has been received with the same value of SEG.ACK and with the same right window edge. If more than a threshold number of such ACK's is received, then the segment containing the octets starting at SEG.ACK is assumed to have been lost and is retransmitted, without awaiting a timeout. The threshold is chosen to compensate for the maximum likely segment reordering in the Internet. There is not yet enough experience with the fast retransmit algorithm to determine how useful it is.

Next: 4.2.3 SPECIFIC ISSUES

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1122 - 4.2.2.21 Acknowledging Queued Segments: RFC-793 Section 3.9